


Hooded Figures and Sea Monsters

by paradiamond



Category: Pacific Rim (2013), Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Crossover, Kink Meme, M/M, Smart Idiots, this is silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-19
Updated: 2014-08-10
Packaged: 2017-12-24 01:01:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/933249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paradiamond/pseuds/paradiamond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Newt comes from a small desert community called Night Vale. He left it years ago, but that doesn't mean that it left him. </p><p>Tendo makes announcements, Hermann is confused, and Newt has a crush. </p><p>Welcome to the Shatterdome.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> A fill for the WTNV/Pacific Rim prompt on the kink meme (: 
> 
> http://pacificrimkink.livejournal.com/350.html?thread=1066590#t1066590
> 
> This is a seriously stupid thing that I have done. I just like Night Vale ok.

“There is a cat hovering in the bathroom.” 

Newt shoots a look over his shoulder at the sound of his lab partner’s tightly clipped words. “Oh yeah,” he says, turning back to his dissection. “I’d noticed that.” 

Hermann comes to a disgruntled stop right behind him. “Well don’t you think we should _do_ something?” he demands, slamming his cane down- presumably for emphasis. Newt scoffs, annoyed to be interrupted. His lab partner might be adorable and Newt _might_ want to kiss him a little bit, but he has stuff to do. 

“Dude-”

“Doctor.”

“Yeah, whatever.” He swings his legs around on his stool to face his fellow scientist/nemesis. “Shit happens. Cats float, books stop working, people get drafted into the boy scouts.” 

Hermann sputters. “No they-”

“My point-” Newt says, holding up a hand. “-is that we can’t just drop everything whenever a little incident occurs. Is there anything _wrong_ with the cat?” 

Hermann blinks, slowly, like he’s stalling for time or something. “No...I believe the cat is fine but-” 

“Well alright then!” Newt throws up his arms. “Now, I’d like to get back to my, incredibly delicate and time sensitive, work.” 

He turns back around, the gears in the chair squeaking the only noise in the room. Behind him, Hermann doesn’t move for a good minute. Newt just shrugs it off. It’s like his sister always says, people from outside Night Vale are so _sensitive._

***

_Uh- hey everyone. Tendo Choi speaking at the request of Marshall Pentecost. It appears that several unidentified, uh, hooded figures have made their way into the Shatterdome. They were last seen in the practice room. You know, the room with all the mats? Point being these individuals are not cleared to be in the facility and you should report all sightings immediately. Do not attempt to engage these hooded figures in any way. Just let us know._

***

“Dr. Geiszler!” 

Newt spins around to face a very irate looking Hermann, who by the look on his face had been calling Newt for some time. 

“Uh, yeah?” Newt says, going for cool and nonchalant, which never works on the significantly more serious man. He should probably know better by now. 

Hermann glares. “I _asked_ what you propose to do about the Glow Cloud.” 

“Oh, that.” Newt leans back against the counter. “Yeah, you know, I figure we’ll just wait and see if it comes back.” 

Hermann shoots him a severely unimpressed look. “Really.” 

“Yeah,” Newt says, smiling. “It shows up, drops a few dead animals, then disappears when a Kaiju attacks Kyoto. Open and shut.” 

“Aren’t you the _least_ bit concerned that some entity of totally unknown origin just appeared and wreaked havoc?” Hermann yells in that I-was-educated-in-Britain non-yelling way and waves his cane around in Newt’s face, who bats it away. 

“Havoc?” He rolls his eyes. “You call a few dead animals havoc?” 

“Animals of totally unknown origin!” 

“Oh come on-”

“No! I will not _come on_ Dr. Geiszler, this is a serious-” 

“They were already dead!” 

Hermann makes a series of noises that aren’t quite words before slamming his cane on the floor and putting on hand over his eyes. He stops moving entirely. 

Newt leans forward, trying to decide how thoroughly he broke his lab partner. The results are inconclusive. Hermann really is the most confusing, and cutest, lab partner Newt had ever had. Including that one weird kid he’d had when he took Double Spanish in high school. Shrugging, he turns back to his station to look at the latest lab readings on a Kaiju skin sample, but then turns back. 

“Oh yeah. Speaking of animals, did you feed Bathroom Cat?" 

Hermann doesn’t respond. 

***

 _Hello again Shatterdome, Tendo Choi here. Just updating all personnel on the hooded figures situation. It seems that they mean us no harm, though it is still not recommended that anyone approach them. There is at least one death being attributed to these hooded figures, but that has yet to be confirmed. Ranger Herc Hansen tells us that he saw the currently missing utilities worker talking to one of these individuals, but then, the man also considers a dog to be his closest friend. Go ahead and take that one with a grain of salt. And anyway, these things happen all the time. It's probably nothing. But, as always, please report all sightings. Anyone who needs a dead animal removed from their quarters should contact the remaining utilities staff. Tendo out._

***

“Newton! Let me in this instant!” 

Newt starts violently at the sudden actual yelling and what sounds like a cane banging on his metal door repeatedly. He jumps up off the bed and scrambles to get the thing open, revealing a red-in-the-face and visibly winded Dr. Gottlieb. 

“Uh-”

Hermann takes a breath and says, in a far too calm tone of voice, “May I come in?” 

Newt blinks at him like an idiot for a second, because it's _Hermann_ and what the fuck, before his brain catches up with itself and he pushes the door wide. “Yeah! Sure thing, come on in.” 

He watches in semi-disbelieving amazement as the man he’d spent the last however many years working with (and nursing a juvenile crush on) takes his first steps ever into his tiny little living space and sits down at the desk like he’d done it a million times. 

Newt warily watches him do nothing for a minute before moving to sit on the edge of the bed. “So...”

“There was a hooded figure in my quarters.” 

Newt feels his eyes go wide. “No way! That’s so cool, did they say anything?” 

Hermann shoots him a glare that rivals Marshal Pentecost’s I-know-it-was-you-Newt look. “No, Newton. They, whomever _they_ are, did not say anything before I left.” 

“Well I’m just saying-”

“I know,” Hermann says, resting his head on his hands in a decidedly un-Hermann-like fashion. Newt stares over at him, unsure of what to do with this new, quieter version of his partner. 

After a few more seconds in which Hermann does not berate him for his complete mess of a room, Newt begins to get concerned that the hooded figure might have altered him in some way. It’s been known to happen. 

“So, uh,” Newt starts, not at all awkwardly. Hermann does not look up. He decides to go for the full-on distraction method. “There was this one guy in my town, where I grew up, who used to do this weird thing where he’d dress up like a Native American. And like, he was this random white dude, but he wore this horrible racist headdress thing all the time and made everyone uncomfortable.” 

He glances over at Hermann, who had looked up from his arms around ‘Native American’. “He called himself the Apache Tracker.” 

Hermann frowns and sits up fully. “Well. That doesn’t sound very culturally sensitive.” 

Newt bursts into laughter, which Hermann actually joins him in, albeit in a more reserved way. Newt can’t help but notice what a nice laugh he has. “Yeah-” he says between breaths. “He was a real asshole.” 

Hermann shakes his head and looks away, apparently to frown around at the state of the room. Newt counts it as a win in restoring his science bro back to his correct state and then decides that he better distract him again before he looks too closely. 

“So, I take it you need a place to crash tonight?” Newt says, and Hermann whips his head around so fast Newt has a momentary shock of worry for his neck. Newt raises his eyebrows. “I mean, isn’t that why you came by?”

Hermann flushes. “Of _course_ not. Don’t be-”

“Absurd?” He grins. “So I take it you’ll be bunking with the hooded figure then?” 

Silence. 

Finally, because he can kind of tell that Hermann would actually take not sleeping at all over telling Newt he needs help, Newt decides to just be the bigger man. For once. 

“Ok seriously though I’d feel more safe if you stayed here tonight. Like, for me I mean.” Hermann gives him a stern look and Newt shrugs. “Safety first.” 

Which is how Newt winds up hosting the first ever Weird Shit Bro Sleepover. 

***

 _Hi there listeners. Tendo Choi here again with an update on the hooded figure and feral dog pack situations, which may or may not be related. For anyone out there in the Shatterdome who does not know, these apparently intelligent dogs appeared early this morning and began causing quite the fuss. No significant structural damage has yet been reported except for some, ah, graffiti of an anti-capitalist nature. Now, no one is trying to say that the dogs are responsible for these detailed (and quite witty) attacks on economist Adam Smith’s ideas and personal character, especially since several employees claimed to have seen a hooded figure or two nearby the graffiti sites. Oh well. We may never know._

***

“Knock knock!” 

Newt rocks back and forth on his heels and grins at the clear sounds of Hermann huffing and scraping his chair loudly against the floor. He opens the door, and Newt smiles even wider at his pinched expression. 

“You know,” Hermann says as he steps aside to allow Newt in. “Most people actually _knock_ when they want to enter another person’s room instead of-”

“Happy Not Doomsday Hermann!” Newt nearly yells, thrusting a bottle of what he knows is Hermann’s favorite German beer in his hands, mostly to shut him up. 

Hermann rolls his eyes. “Yes, very cute Dr. Geizler.” But he opens the bottle and takes a drink, so Newt counts it as a victory and sits down on his bed without permission. Hermann gives him a pointed look but returns to the desk chair without comment. 

“So,” Newt says, cracking open the beer he got for himself. “Weird day.” 

Hermann nearly chokes on his drink. “That,” he says, dryly. “May just be the understatement of the century.” 

Newt waves a hand. “Nah, I mean-” he pauses to take a drink. “-it was weird, yeah. But the weirdest?” 

Hermann just watches him, and Newt imagines him thinking back to the jumble of patently bizarre occurrences he had seen in Newt’s head during their brief Drifting experience. Town wide shared dreams, forests that appear out of nowhere, people claiming to be Angels. 

“You might be right,” Hermann says, looking away. “Was the slavic man in the native american-”

“Oh yeah, that was the Apache Tracker. What an asshole.” Newt rolls his eyes. 

“I must say, Dr. Geiszler,” Hermann says casually, ignoring the squawking Newt makes over the intentional use of his title. “You’re ridiculous calm demeanor in the face of odd occurrences does make a great deal more sense now that I've seen your memories.” 

Newt cracks a smile, and Hermann is visibly relieved over the casual acceptance of their drift being brought up for the first time. 

“But,” he says, taking another drink. “I am never visiting your hometown.” 

Newt laughs, and it must be infectious because Hermann joins him.

“So why did you leave the party? It’s pretty fun out there,” Newt says, still smiling and watching Hermann try and fail to not enjoy his drink simply because Newt got it for him. 

“Oh I don’t know. Why did _you_ leave the party if you liked it so much?” he asks, arching one eyebrow. 

Newt copies his expression. “I don’t know either, maybe because you’re pretty much my only friend, we just had one hell of a bonding session, and you just left anyway?” He intends for it to come out much lighter than it does, judging from Hermann’s slightly shocked expression. 

“You-”

“Never mind,” Newt says, waving a hand through the air, suddenly reconsidering his honesty. If Hermann wanted to respond to the feelings he’d no doubt felt through the drift, he probably would have already. “I’m just messing with you. Want another beer? I’ll just go back to the-”

“Newton.” He freezes, half way through standing up. Hermann gives him a Look. With a capital L. “Sit down.” 

He does, not meeting the other man’s eyes. They lapse into silence in which Newt studies Hermann’s room and Hermann pretends to be fascinated by his beer. Hermann has few personal things, not being the most sentimental man ever, but he does have a few well-used books. 

Silence. Newt spares a thought for how bad they both are at this. 

After a minute Newt looks up. “Hey...so I think I saw some weird glowing lights outside.”

Hermann just looks at him, still silent and red in the face. Newt presses on. “Like, they’re in the sky, but not high up enough to be stars, and know that they aren’t-”

“Fine,” Hermann says, standing up and offering Newt his hand. “Let’s go look at your lights.” 

Newt smiles up at him and Hermann returns it.

“Just keep an eye out for Hooded Figures.”


	2. Two

“Hermann,” Newt calls, sounding nervous as he walks out of their now shared bathroom. “Have you, uh, seen my tattoos? I can’t find them.” 

Sitting at the desk with his morning cup of tea, Hermann takes a second to mentally prepare himself before he has to deal with the newest crisis brought to him by the love of his life and biggest pain in his ass. Their relationship is generally very good, but it’s just too early in the morning for the weirdness. 

After a loaded second, he turns in his chair, trying to keep any exasperation off of his face. 

Newt gasps and raises a hand to point at him like a child. “Found them!” he squeaks. Hermann freezes immediately, afraid to look. 

Being in a relationship with Newton Geiszler is just as bizarre as Hermann thought it would be. Not only is Newt the strangest person Hermann has ever met, it seems that some of his strangeness is quite literally infectious. 

Newt is still staring at him, now his his mouth open. “Uh-” 

“Newton,” Hermann says, careful not looking down at himself again. Seeing his arms covered in ink once was enough. He tries to keep his tone even. “You will fix this.” 

“Yup,” Newt says, still staring at him with wide eyes. 

Hermann shoots him a glare and turns back to the desk, trying to ignore that fact that he is covered with Newt’s garish, monstrous, and completely _unprofessional_ tattoos. 

***

_Hey everyone, Tendo Choi here. Just reminding you all on this rainy and uncomfortable day at the Shatterdome that though the Hooded Figures, you’ll know them when you see them, have not been spotted for uh- ten! Ten whole days, there is still a crystal alert. That’s right, crystal. We downgraded from blood orange, but don’t be fooled. That’s what they want. In other news, Marshal Hansen would like me reiterate the fact that any unexplained glowing lights seen in or outside of the facility should be reported to him immediately. He would also like you all to know that he did NOT sign up for this._

***

It’s his turn to feed the bathroom cat, so Hermann spends a good part of his otherwise productive morning trying to coax the floating animal to eat tuna from a can and carefully avoiding his own reflection. 

He is fortunate that his usual manner of dress involves being covered from head to toe, it makes it less suspicious today. So far, no one but Newt has seen the tattoos, and no one else will. And, despite what Newt says, Hermann will not be taking any pictures. The entire event will fade from memory entirely. 

For whatever reason the floating cat, which still does not have an official name because Hermann refuses to call anything ‘Dogzilla’ or ‘Smeowg’, refuses to eat, choosing instead to scratch strange pictograms and symbols into the mirror. Again. 

Hermann gives up, leaving the food on the stone pedestal Newt had left in the bathroom for the cat’s use. He walks back into the lab which is currently dominated by the many specimens Newt insists on working on at the same time and occupied by the man himself, standing in front of a large mirror. 

“Hey,” Newt calls out, sounding distracted. He has his shirt off and is twisted around to stare at his own bare back. 

Hermann stops a few feet away, eyeing him. “I’m afraid to ask.” 

Newt snorts, rolling his eyes. “I’m just looking at my skin, _Hermann_ , I haven’t seen it in a while.” 

“Of course,” Hermann says, scowling at him. Newt turns to look at him, eyes wide and deceptively innocent. 

“Are you mad at me?” 

Hermann narrows his eyes. “Yes.” 

Newt cries out plaintively. “Dude-” 

“ _Don’t_ call me that-” 

“I didn’t mean for this to happen, ok? I’ll fix it.” Newt puts his hands up. 

“You better,” Hermann mutters under his breath as he goes over to his chalkboards, trying to ignore Newt, who persists in following him. He stands and stares at the formulas and half-finished calculations without really seeing them. Though the breach had been destroyed, there remained burning questions, unresolved hypotheses, plenty of scientific work to be done. Not to mention the strange occurrences that the Shatterdome experiences on a regular basis. 

“Did you crack that code you’ve been working on?” Newt asks him, too nicely. He’s trying to manipulate Hermann into not being annoyed. “Because, uh, that shit is badass!” 

Hermann side-eyes him. “That would be more meaningful if you didn’t refer to yourself the same way for eating wheat and visiting libraries. Sometimes.” 

Newt glances around. “Hey, keep that quiet, ok? We talked about this, I don’t want to get in trouble.” 

Hermann goes back to his work, smiling in spite of himself. Newt sees this of course, and wraps his arms around Hermann’s waist, squeezing. Irritated as he is, Hermann leans back into his touch, allowing himself to be relaxed. Newt rests his chin on Hermann’s shoulder to whisper in his ear. “I am a badass though.” 

***

_This is an emergency update on the situation in the mess hall. It appears that the glowing cloud of energy, known as the Glow Cloud, from two months ago has returned. Now, we don’t want anyone to be scared...or killed, so we are advising an immediate shutdown of all food services. Just do not under any circumstance go into the mess hall until further notice. Thank you._

***

There is clearly something wrong with the oranges, Hermann just doesn’t know what it is. He stares down at one, through a microscope and frowns. Really, as a biologist Newt should be dealing with this, but he took off after lunch and after they lost (literally) their third intern under suspicious circumstances they stopped hiring them. Which leaves Hermann. 

“Hey.” 

Hermann shifts slightly, just enough to see Newt approaching the workspace, and then turns back to his work. The orange is gone. “Hello,” he says, distracted. He writes in his note book: _Time/space bending fruit?_

Newt comes to stand directly next to him. “So, I have an idea about the tattoos.” 

Intrigued, Hermann turns to face him. “Really-” 

Newt cuts him off by grabbing his arms at the elbows and kissing Hermann full on the mouth. Caught off guard, it takes him a moment to process the fact the Newt just kissed him in the middle of their workplace and to try to push him away. 

“What- Newton!” Hermann hisses when he succeeds, red faced and mortified. He turns to frantically look in the direction of the door to make sure no one saw them, but all he catches is the movement of what seems to be the tail end of a tall shadow as it leaves the space. He jerks away from it, startled. It’s unnerving to say the least.

He realizes that Newt is talking and pushing up one of Hermann’s sleeves. “-just had the idea because, you know, what we did last night. But I guess it didn’t work,” he says, frowning down at their arms, which look the same as they did that morning. Hermann can tell that he’s starting to work himself into a bit of a frenzy. 

When Newt’s face starts to actually turn red, Hermann takes pity on him and raises his hands to take hold of Newt’s face, which is so strange it quiets the other man immediately. 

“It was a...reasonable idea,” Hermann says, finally. He glances back at the doorway. “Not completely unjustified. We’ll deal it later, but I may have just seen a Hooded Figure.” 

Newt whips around, distracted now. “No way, where?” 

Hermann uses his cane to point in the direction of the doorway, and Newt immediately grabs his free hand, and pulls him in the opposite direction, going on about dangerous governmental organizations and unsafe working conditions. Hermann is so amused he forgets to protest. 

***

_Hi everyone. Tendo here again. So, uh, the Glow Cloud is no longer a problem. In fact, it has joined us as our newest employee! This is really, er, exciting news and you should not be scared by it. The Glow Cloud is not a problem. The Glow Cloud can never BE a problem. On a related note, however, the Hooded Figures appear to have returned. That puts out ‘days without a Hooded Figure’ sightings board, back to zero. Which is fine! Now we have something to look forward to. I guess._

***

“Ok,” Newt says, rifling through his desk drawer. “Ok ok ok.” 

Hermann casts him a sideways glance, mildly concerned over the repetition. Newt only tends to do this when he’s under a lot of stress. 

They’ve gone back to their quarters, mostly because they have no real plan and it seemed the safest option to Hermann. “Found it!” Newt calls out, grinning and turning to show Hermann what he has. 

It’s a gun. 

Hermann narrows his eyes. “Why do you even-” 

Newt darts over to the bed to pick up his phone. “Dude, can you fuss at me later? Like, you can do it, but not right now?” 

Hermann rolls his eyes and gets to his feet. “Fine. Let’s go get this over with.” They have to inform the Marshal about what they saw. A hooded figure is nothing to stay silent about. Normally they would simply call him but something, Hermann suspects the oranges, is disrupting their communication systems.

Still hyperactive, Newt gets to the door first and wrenches it open. Then he immediately slams it closed, turning back to Hermann white-faced. “Uh-” 

Hermann shifts into a more defensive stance, not that he really thinks it will help. “What is it?”

“The Glow Cloud.” 

“Right outside-”

“Yeah,” Newt says, pushing his glasses back up on his nose. It’s a nervous habit, one that Hermann usually finds endearing. Now it just seems to signal their impending demise. 

There’s a faint humming sound coming from the other side of the door. Newt is starting at it with a mix of fear and curiosity that Hermann sincerely hope doesn’t translate into trying to investigate. Hermann nods to himself, trying to remain the calm one in the situation. “All right. We can-” 

But he’s cut off by the sudden surge of sound from the hall, drowning him out. Newt scrambles back, grabbing onto Hermann’s arm so tightly he’ll probably leave bruises. Hermann doesn’t even notice, still focused on the door and trying to determine if death is imminent or not. 

The sound level decreases slowly, transitioning from a roar, to a loud buzz, until finally it’s gone. 

They stand there, still gripping each other tightly, for a tense couple of minutes. Hermann lets out a breath he hadn’t realized that he’d been holding. After the loudness of the event they just experienced, the silence in the room is nearly suffocating. 

Newt speaks up first, as always. “So, do you think we’re good? Or-” 

“Lets find out,” Hermann says, heading towards the door. Newt stays plastered to his side, leaning towards the door with him as he looks through the peep hole. He jerks back, surprised, and Newt pulls him away so he can look for himself. 

“Woah…” Newt breathes. “Well at least the Glow Cloud isn’t there anymore.” Hermann nudges him so he can take another look. The hallway seems to have been replaced by the helicopter landing area. Or at least the image of it. Hermann frowns and tries to think of all the possibilities, but there are too many to consider. They don’t even know what type of energy the Glow Cloud emits. 

“Did it just move us or did it scramble the whole building?” Newt asks, rubbing a hand over his face. 

“I don’t know,” Hermann responds, even though he knows Newt’s question was rhetorical. 

Newt is shifting his weight from foot to foot, and Hermann notices that he’s still holding the gun. “Well...I guess there’s only one way to find out.” Then before Hermann can stop him, he’s opening the door and stepping out into the open space. 

Hermann hesitates for a second before following him out. The likelihood that it’s any safer inside their room isn’t very good anyway. “Newton, we should probably stay close.” 

Newt turns around and smirks at him. “Why are you scared?” But he walks over and takes his hand anyway, squeezing it so tightly it tingles. Hermann rolls his eyes. 

There doesn’t appear to be anything unusual about the scene, no glowing lights, no hooded figures. Hermann squints in the dimming light. At least it’s not raining for once. Next suddenly stops dead, nearly pulling Hermann of balance.

“Newt-”

“Uh, dude?” 

He sounds concerned enough for Hermann to bypass yelling at him so he can look back in the direction they had come. Their door is gone. “I see,” Hermann says, clutching tighter at Newt’s hand, which seems to grow hot. He looks, but the Glow Cloud in nowhere to be seen. 

They stand in silence for a few minutes, considering the space where the door had been. The regular entrance doors are back, though who know where they might lead. “It’s pretty out here,” Newt says, staring out at the water. “I wonder if…” 

Hermann turns to him. “You have a theory?” 

Newt colors and rubs a hand over his face. “Nah, not really.” 

“Really Newton, if you think you-” 

“I was just wondering if maybe that’s why the cloud brought us out here? You know, to get us to look,” Newt says, not looking at Hermann’s face. They’re still holding hands. 

Hermann stares at him, frowning. “You think that the Glow Cloud...is setting us up on a date?” 

Newt makes a face. “Uh. No?” 

Shaking his head, Hermann glances down at their joined hands and gasps. Newt jumps. “What? Is it the-” 

“No, look!” Hermann holds up their hands, showing him the swirling mix of colors and shapes bleeding between the two of them. Newt’s tattoos. 

“Huh, that’s so cool,” Newt says, turning their wrists around so he can see both sides. “It must be the Glow Cloud energy.” 

“It could be any number of things,” Hermann says, ignoring Newt’s exaggerated eye roll. “We really have no way of know-” 

Newt cuts him off with a kiss, stepping forward to crush their hands between their chests. The heat there gets stronger, verging on painful, but Hermann ignores it, focusing on the feel of Newt’s mouth against his own. 

Eventually, Newt breaks away, breathing hard. He immediately looks down at their hands and grins, shaking them. Hermann looks down too and sees Newt’s tattoos have taken their rightful place on Newt’s arms again. “How about that.” Newt says, smirking now. “Looks like my kissing plan worked.” 

“Oh please Newton,” Hermann says, rolling up his sleeves to inspect his now bare arms. “The transference was already starting to occur.” 

“No, I really think it was the kissing.” Hermann pushes his sleeves back down and opens his mouth to respond, but Newt beats him to it, flinching away from something. “Oh shit, there it is!” 

Hermann turns and sees the hooded figure, or at least _a_ hooded figure, standing a few feet to their left. All Hermann can do is stand there, thinking that this is a truly ridiculous way to die. 

After a loaded moment in which absolutely nothing happens, Newt clears his throat. “Uh, we’re kind of having a personal moment here?” The hooded figure stares over at them, or at least, appears to. It’s facing their direction at least. Hermann resolves to beat Newton the death if the hooded figure doesn’t kill them first. 

Finally, it raises one hand, slowly. Hermann sucks in a breath. It makes a fist, and raises one thumb. Then it turns and disappears into the darkness. 

They stand in silence for a few seconds, shocked. 

Newt turns to look at Hermann, eyes wide. “It just gave us a thumbs up.” 

“Oh really Newt-” 

“It did!” he yells, throwing an arm around Hermann’s shoulder. “It _totally_ did!” 

They continue bickering, wrapped up in each other, as they walk back through the Shatterdome doors (the right ones this time).


End file.
